Leadership plots and rumours surround Sir Keir Starmer
Leadership plots and rumours surround Sir Keir Starmer
There are moves afoot within the Labour Party to replace the Prime Minister
https://www.theguardian.com/news/ng-...prime-minister
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Guardian
It is not unusual or surprising for MPs to grumble about their party leaders – nor to discuss how they might theoretically get rid of them and replace them with somebody else.
But this time it appears to be more than just idle gossip. The Guardian has spoken to MPs, ministers – including at cabinet level – and party officials who claim that below-the-radar operations to oust the prime minister are already in place.
“The conversation has moved on from ‘if’. Now it’s about ‘who’ and ‘how’,” one MP involved in plotting said. The summer recess, when the government vacated the public arena and allowed Reform UK to shape the narrative, crystallised the need for a change.
“Before then, there were quite a lot of people saying we’ve got to make it work. We came back after the summer, the mood had significantly hardened,” one MP said.
“People in their constituencies have been getting terrible feedback. Farage has been everywhere. The mood was: this has been a fucking disaster. We’ve been given nothing to do. The government just cleared the pitch.”
Others have been reflecting on the timing, with the general view that next May’s local elections – with Wales and dozens of councils in the north of England at risk of falling to Reform, and Scotland staying in the hands of the SNP – are a moment of particular peril for Starmer.
But some don’t believe Starmer can survive even that long. After Downing Street’s leaden-footed response to the Mandelson row, furious MPs turned their ire on Morgan McSweeney, the No 10 chief of staff. But for most he is just a lightning rod for all their anger and disappointment.
“I’m not even sure Starmer can survive until May,” one Blair-era cabinet minister said. “The mood is dire. The message from pretty much across the board was that one more major issue like Rayner/Peter and the dam would burst. But this is the Labour party so we shall see.”
It is astounding that just over a year after winning a landslide majority, the government is already beginning to fall apart and with a lot of talk surrounding the Prime Minister's future. My feeling is that this fits into the broader trend of the two main parties disintegrating before our eyes.
